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Moose Antler's avatar

It's interesting to think about the broader implications for the lack of small c conservatives in cultural institutions. Setting aside which things should or shouldn't be preserved, the very notion that anything is worth preserving at all is inherently right wing.

I also quite liked the use of the term "Canadian Healthcare" as a euphemism. It's such a nice little touch.

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Kitten's avatar

I am used to twitter, where one of the few things that will still get your account banned is mention of suicide.

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Fred's avatar

Splash Mountain probably made sense in the 80s because people were still reading Uncle Remus which was not a flop like "Song of the South" and only much more recently fell out of favor (supposedly for being "racist" but I really don't know).

Disneyland did at some point make it so that Brer Rabbit was stuck in a beehive instead of fighting a tar baby, which is a confusing choice, but whatever. I guess depicting a fake black baby as the victim of a cocky rabbit is no good.

Uncle Remus' Tales really should make a comeback. They supposedly actually do have some links to tales told in Africa, and they've been hugely influential in American language and culture. But good luck becoming president if you call an issue a "tar baby." Maybe the death of Splash Mountain is actually indirectly Mitt Romney's fault.

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Nathaniel Swenson's avatar

Good essay though I disagree that Who Framed Roger Rabbit left very little lasting cultural impact. Ironically I'd say that Jessica Rabbit was the main part leaving an impact. I think people forget that for decades she was considered a female empowerment figure, the phrase "I'm not bad I was just drawn that way." was quoted often by women until sometime in the 2010s. It seems like they did the same thing they always do with these type of female empowerment characters that don't fit in to the box of "Basically just a male action hero but shorter and doesn't fail ever" and tried to shove her into that box.

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Kitten's avatar

Jessica is indeed the only legacy of that movie. Nobody remembers Eddie or the Weasels or Judge Doom or Roger himself, it's just Jessica.

And she really would never be drawn that way today, characters like hers don't get greenlit. Although to be fair, Roger Rabbit is generational lightning in a bottle, it's a miracle it exists at all.

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Red Barchetta's avatar

I dunno. Judge Doom will haunt me until my last breath.

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Blackshoe's avatar

First off, congratulations on your stack not being blocked at my work, unlike the PSmiths or Matt Shapiro. Guess they haven't found you yet!

Second, thinking about your 2nd to last para here, I recently finished reading (okay, listening to) the Man in the High Castle, and was curious about differences between the book and the TV show (which I never saw and don't really intend to). Anyway, I came across several blogs discussing this question, mostly in alarmist tones of how the book is AWFUL and not to be read because it's racist/sexist* (this blog post is representative:)

https://biblio-therapy.com/2016/02/08/the-man-in-the-high-castle-book-vs-movie-showdown/

The thing about this is I thought one thing Man in the High Castle was great at was to create characters who felt authentic to the world and had beliefs you'd expect to have where Nazis win and their racial science views aren't rejected from the norm, and also then use that particular fact to make the *Japanese* the good guys (basically). Which is a heck of a thing to do in the 1960s! For people like those who wrote the review or those who modified Disneyland, the need to remove the problematic past means they sacrifice excellence in the medium.

*funny thing when the author said "Every female character is both stupid and mean" is that there's only one female character.

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episodenull's avatar

I don't mind changing it so the women chase the pirates; it's pretty funny and I have a soft spot for the trope of grandmotherly type chastising some tough guy twice her size. But I agree about the wench auction. There's still looting, gluttony, and implications of slavery, so lust being one sin beyond the pale is inexplicable and annoying.

But what really infuriates me is the Tiana ride. If they really, really had to do an anti-racism, Zootopia was right there and they could keep the animal animatronics. Plus the Shakira song is pretty good, not as good as Zippity-Do-Dah, but good. Instead they gutted a classic ride and replaced it with nothing.

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Thomas W. Dinsmore's avatar

See? People read your long-form stuff here.

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vectro's avatar

I think the closing of this essay is somewhat revealing. The author seems to think that Disneyland is a museum, that it should show us and teach us about the past, that changing it deprives us of a correct sense of history.

But — that’s wrong? Disneyland is quite simply not a museum. It has always evolved to meet the customer where he is and it will continue to do so in the future.

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michael stallman's avatar

Kitten bemoans the loss of 1990s Disneyland, but it had already changed quite a lot since 1960s Disneyland with the mule rides, sharpshooter arcade game, and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. As with the rest of the culture, the only thing constant at Disneyland is change. That's why we show our kids old films, including Song of the South.

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Kitten's avatar

It's true, the nostalgia one feels is fixed at an arbitrary point in time upon a moving target. Nobody (presumably) is lamenting the loss of the pack mules.

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Gus's avatar
May 22Edited

But there HAVE been female pirates?? Anne Bonny, Mary Reid... others too, though I can't recall the names on the fly.

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May 1
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Kitten's avatar

I can imagine that's true and has become worse over time.

Have been enjoying Twin Peaks lately for the first time, and was discussing with the wife how unusual it is to see dumb characters, especially women, played for laughs.

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